Days After The Vote, Haddonfield's Commissioner Election Remains Uncertain

HADDONFIELD, NJ — Three days after Haddonfield's Board of Commissioners election, the results remain uncertain.

Incumbents Dave Siedell and Frank Troy left Tuesday's election night with substantial leads, while Itir Cole continues to hold a narrow advantage for the third and final spot.

Cole has 1,979 votes to William C. Shanahan's 1,940 in the latest election tally, released Thursday afternoon. But vote-by-mail ballots are still coming in, and provisional ballots must be counted.

Haddonfield will have a clearer picture by Tuesday, when the newly elected Board of Commissioners will be sworn in.

Four candidates ran for the board's three seats. The commissioners serve four-year terms.

Cole has held marginal leads over Shanahan in each updated tally since the end of election night. But the former White House senior technology expert is not declaring victory yet.

"Right now, I'm ahead enough to win the third seat, but with some votes still left to be counted, we'll wait for the certified results before celebrating," Cole said Wednesday on social media. "No matter the outcome, I'm so proud of what we've built together."

The commissioner work session, originally scheduled for this upcoming Monday, has been postponed to 6 p.m. May 27.

Haddonfield was among three Camden County locales to hold nonpartisan, municipal elections on Tuesday, along with Audubon and Collingswood.

In a race as tight as Haddonfield's, provisional votes and late-arriving mail-in ballots could sway the final outcome.

Under state law, mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day. The county board of elections, which counts the votes, must receive them within six days of that time — in this case, by 8 p.m. Monday.

The Camden County Board of Elections also received about 200 provisional ballots among the three races, which are not yet reflected in the vote totals. But it's unclear how many of those ballots came from Haddonfield.

The results remain unofficial until certified by the municipal clerk.

Here's the unofficial tally as of this writing:

Haddonfield Borough Commissioners

(Vote for three)

• Dave Siedell: 2,198
• Frank Troy: 2,134
• Itir Cole: 1,979
• William C. Shanahan: 1,940
• Write-in: 199